Employee Compensation

Wal-Mart has been increasing overall audits of suppliers every year, with surprise audits increasing at a more rapid rate. What exactly it finds when it performs these audits is a secret, but Wal-Mart will say that there has been a 23 percent reduction in high-risk factory violations, and that this came as a result of its supplier training program.

Avon has earned the reputation of being a model corporation for female employment. The company’s CEO is female, and women hold more than half of the executive positions and highest paid jobs. But when it comes to the rank and file sales representatives, Avon doesn’t look so pretty.

For years, music aficionados and fans have complained about the high cost of albums put out by the major music labels. For instance, CDs have remained at the relatively the same price since the mid-1980s when they first became widely available, despite the fact that the cost of making a CD has dropped. These high costs have been at the center of a battle over file-sharing, or pirating. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) blames file-sharing for the poor financial state of the music industry. The association has sued everyone from schoolchildren to elderly grandmothers. (The RIAA’s image was damaged in 2005 when it subpoenaed an 83-year-old grandmother, Gertrude Walton, accusing her of swapping rock, pop and rap songs. Mrs. Walton died a number of months prior to the case).

American Apparel is rapidly becoming a force in the casual clothing and undergarments trade. Fifty-three stores are seeded in five countries and the company pulls in $250 million a year in sales. While it’s a large retailing operation, American Apparel has worked hard to fashion exemplary policies in environmental and social impact.